A
TREATISE
OF THE
Nature of Salts:
OR, A
Clear Description, declaring by a perfect Explanation, the Nature, Properties, and use of such Salts as are commonly known, as also of a certain other very wonderful Salt, hitherto unknown to the World; by whose help all Vegitables, Animals and Minerals, without diminution of their weight, or change of their form, may be transmuted into hard and incombustible Bodies:
WITH
A most firm Demonstration that Salt (after God and the Sun) is the only Beginning, Original, Propagation and Augmentation of all things; from which the greatest Treasure of the whole World; and the greatest Riches may be obtained.
THE PREFACE.
The manifold and various sorts of food, whether prepared of Flesh or Fish, if brought to the Table not seasoned with Salt, are not grateful to the Palate; in as much as they neither exhibit a pleasant relish, nor conduce to the health of the Body. Every man will readily assent to the truth of this trite and vulgar Maxim, if he shall consider with an accurate mind, that among all the Seasonings and Sauces of food, Salt holdeth the chiefest place, and that there is no other equal to it, so that among so many, there is no one to be preferr’d to it.
Therefore what great and excellent Treasures, admirable Virtues, and most worthy Endowments, in which, by diligent search, and inquisition the minds of men may be occupied, are contained therein, I have determined in this present Treatise to enquire into, and declare; inasmuch as for the space of fifteen or sixteen years, I have endeavoured nothing more, than that by all my Labours I might serve the Divine Glory, and the publick good. For by my first endeavours I published a Work, treating of Philosophical Furnaces in five parts, and I discovered five Furnaces, adapted to the various modes of Distillation; I also shewed the way of preparing (by an artificial manner) excellent Medicines which drive away various and divers Diseases afflicting the Humane Body, which profitable and artificial Inventions, no man before me hath revealed.
Next follows my Mineral Work, shewing the Original, and emendation of Metals and Minerals: To which succeedeth my Pharmacopœia Spagyrica, in three parts, treating of Vegetables, and by what means efficacious Medicines may be prepared of them.
Next after these, was my Work of the Admirable Nature and Properties of Salt-petre, in which is solidly demonstrated, that that Miracle of all sorts, is the true Universal Solvent of Philosophers, which is subservient to the use of all men, high and low, rich and poor. That little Treatise I have called by the name of Miraculum Mundi, which I have augmented by an Explication and Continuation, and fenced it with a defence and Apology, against the wicked Insults of Envy and Scorn. In all these I have set before the Eyes of this blind World, the Divine Miracles and Misteries of Nature.